New York Fashion Week: a return to grunge?

Backstage at the Nicholas K Fall 2013 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Studio at Lincoln Center in New York City on Feb. 7, 2013.

NEW YORK – It’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Manhattan again, which means more stylishly-dressed people on the streets than usual.

The twice-yearly shows bring more than 200,000 buyers, fashion editors and models to the city to see and show the work of a few hundred designers, Reuters reported.

The clothing can be whimsical or luxurious, but the event is all business, with designers facing bankruptcy if they don’t recoup their design and show costs with firm sales and event spaces, photographers, makeup artists and models depending on the week to generate a big chunk of their annual income.

The fashion industry employs some 173,000 people and generates nearly $2 billion in annual tax revenue, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp.

This year, about 90 designers, including Carolina Herrera, Diane von Furstenberg and Naeem Khan – and yes, the finalists of the latest season of “Project Runway” – will show their autumn 2013 collections at Lincoln Center. About 200 more will send their models down catwalks or host presentations at alternative venues around town. Victoria Beckham is showing her collection at the New York Public Library, Derek Lam is at Sean Kelly Gallery and Tory Burch is at the Pierre Hotel.

Some names sparking interest include actress Katie Holmes, who’ll be presenting a second collection from Holmes & Yang, her label with her longtime stylist Jeanne Yang, the Wall Street Journal reported.

John Galliano, the French designer who was fired from Christian Dior two years ago after he was videotaped making anti-Semitic remarks, is back, the Wall Street Journal reported. He contributed ideas to Oscar de la Renta’s collection during a three-week “residency” with the designer.

US department store buyers told Reuters they expect to see a feminine take on grunge and punk in many of the women’s wear collections.

"There are early indications that people are having a love affair again with the idea of grunge," Ken Downing, fashion director of luxury department store Neiman Marcus, told Reuters.

"The modern take on punk and grunge will be doing it in a way that will feel more beautiful and feminine as opposed to really tough and harsh, because at the end of the day people still want to wear beautiful clothes," Tomoko Ogura, senior fashion director at Barneys New York, told Reuters.